Drawing in 3-d?

[TiAvenger]

Hey all.

When designing something I always hit a snag in the road, I cannot get the right spatial reference points when trying to sketch it in 3d.  When I try to do angles any more complex than 90 degrees it all goes to hell.  I can see the object in my head, and build it by guesswork, but I would like to start doing the math ahead of time to speed up the process, and waste less material.  I cant understand what I'm doing wrong.

Any tips, tricks..... halp?

[erkishhorde]

Is this a technological problem like you don't know how to work a program or a mental/ psychological problem where you have trouble thinking in 3D?

I think Google had a free version of sketchup that you could use to help you along the way. Dunno how good it is though. I think in 3D pretty well. I kind of imagine it like layers. Comes from reading plans and having to interpolate what happens between floors where walls don't line up vertically.

[TiAvenger]

Is this a technological problem like you don't know how to work a program or a mental/ psychological problem where you have trouble thinking in 3D?

Its taking the 3d image from my brain and putting it to paper.  For some reason my eyes cannot pick out spatial reference points,  I know how things should go.... but my hand wont draw what by brain is telling it to.  If I pick up the medium though, it all comes together....

It like I look at the paper and my brain goes "draw two perpendicular lines at 66 degrees 2 inches." and my hand goes


"ding, fries are done"

[Grampa]

some people just see things as flat.

I took an art class once where one of the guys drew everything as flat. The instructor tried everything to help the guy, but it was like his brain would not let him put it down on paper that way.

I watched a show about DaVinci where they said he practiced drawing cloth, as a way of building 3d skills.

[erkishhorde]

Are you drawing a ghost box to frame your design? It can help a lot to have a ghost box that tells you where the faces of your object are so you can reference points in space. Obliques are pretty easy to get a hang of draw as long as you're consistent and accurate. Grab a 30/60 triangle and draw lots of construction lines.

[TiAvenger]

Are you drawing a ghost box to frame your design? It can help a lot to have a ghost box that tells you where the faces of your object are so you can reference points in space. Obliques are pretty easy to get a hang of draw as long as you're consistent and accurate. Grab a 30/60 triangle and draw lots of construction lines.

How does this work?

some people just see things as flat.

I took an art class once where one of the guys drew everything as flat. The instructor tried everything to help the guy, but it was like his brain would not let him put it down on paper that way.

I watched a show about DaVinci where they said he practiced drawing cloth, as a way of building 3d skills.

Organic objects I have no problem with, its hard lines and angles....

[Ash]

Are you drawing a ghost box to frame your design? It can help a lot to have a ghost box that tells you where the faces of your object are so you can reference points in space. Obliques are pretty easy to get a hang of draw as long as you're consistent and accurate. Grab a 30/60 triangle and draw lots of construction lines.

+1

what i was gonna say, but with dumberer words



trick to engineering drawing: lots and lots of construction lines.

do it in ACAD and use the basic construction line rules and everything will fall into place

[He Man]

+1 to what bobspapa said.
some poeple have a hard time putting what they see in their head on paper.

if you dont have the brain power to see it on a piece of paper, then you probably never will.

if you jsut need the skill to make it look right. then might i suggest you practice drawing human models.



yes, most of the times they are nude. having to draw body motions in quick 10 second poses, to  5 minute poses, forces yuor hand to draw what your eye percieves, and youll start to develop the hand and eye coordination. When you want to draw your thoughts, just close your eyes and pretend your looking at it.

or you can just autocadd it.  but thats pretty hard too if you dont know how to use it. Have you tried google sketch? free and easy to use.

what ash said works really well for isometric drawings. but your image gets VERY distorted becasue its not in perspective view.

you can also make perspective lines to help draw it, but your better of taking a class in that since perspective is a very tricky thing to draw. Might i suggest you purchase a book on perspective drawing. I have a bunch of books by a guy named Ching who makes various drawing books (mostly in the field of engineering and architecture).

edit: you said hard lines and angles. take a class in archteictureal drawing. then beat yourself in the foot for taking it. and your skills will improve dramatically. Or buy that book i told you to get. I have a copy i no longer need.

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Drawing-Francis-D-Ching/dp/0471286540/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224019313&sr=1-6

good book. Ching = good guy too.

[Grampa]

try not looking for the hard lines...but focus on the variation in shading

[TiAvenger]

try not looking for the hard lines...but focus on the variation in shading

Im designing furniture.  Lots of hard angles on that.  It kinda needs to be correct, so I can tell if it matches the other furniture/ Danielle can tell me if she likes it or not.

[Speedbag]

With a 3D CAD program you could model it in no time. 

[He Man]

With a 3D CAD program you could model it in no time. 

but that kills the artistic appraoch of it!

The 3 big forms of art once were Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. That last one has eroded because of AutoCAD. They teach drafting by hand in school, but no one does much of that anymore.

get the ching book!

[erkishhorde]

How does this work?

Sorry, I got my drawing types named wrong. obliques look straight at the face of the object and off to the side slightly. Here's a basic summary. http://www.ider.herts.ac.uk/school/courseware/graphics/oblique.html The gist is that you draw the face normally but all of the 3rd dimension is at a 45' angle. Your image will look distorted unless you "foreshorten" the 3rd dimension or in other words, draw it half as long as it's supposed to be. Start by drawing out a box representing each face of your object and then make cutouts of that box for the indents of your object.

Isometrics are the next step up in 3D drawing. Keep clicking "next page" on that link and it'll go over isometrics and whatnot. Hope it helps.

[DesmoDiva]

Ching is the architectural drawing god!!!   

FWIW, I still draw most of my designs free hand.  ACAD is way too cold and mechanical, it has no soul. 

[erkishhorde]

but that kills the artistic appraoch of it!

The 3 big forms of art once were Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. That last one has eroded because of AutoCAD. They teach drafting by hand in school, but no one does much of that anymore.

get the ching book!

I remember this last year a kid in my shop class brought me some drawings that didn't make any sense so I started drawing an oblique of his design and had him walk me through it. It confused me how amazed he was as I drawing it.  I'm 24 and I'm still old enough to have learned to draft by hand. I suck at perspectives but I'm better than your average Joe. The little pencil twist as I draw a line comes as 2nd nature too. I sometimes do it on accident with my pen and it trips out the pen and gives me a crappy line.